Starting from yesterday, Wednesday 16 November 2022, it is possible to visit, in the underground cavea of the Sansevero Chapel Museum, the exhibition In Vitro Humanitas by Mauro Bonaventura.
A natural combination
Inside the Baroque jewel, designed by Prince Raimondo di Sangro, the Venetian artist exhibits, for the first time in Naples, the installations of his vitreous bodies, made with the technique of glass by light. In particular, In Vitro Humanitas proposes a suggestive juxtaposition between the complex sculptures in polychrome glass "Homo erectus" and "Flying" (suspended figure that refers to the Diver of Paestum) and the famous eighteenth-century anatomical machines.
Modern and ultra-contemporary intricacies
Le Anatomical Machines o Anatomical studies are two models of the circulatory system, created by the Palermitan anatomist Giuseppe Salerno, based on the skeletons of a man and a woman. The arteriovenous system of the Machines, considered real for centuries, has been accurately reproduced thanks to the use of metal wire, colored wax and silk fibers.
The tangle of blood vessels of the Machines, a true masterpiece of eighteenth-century craftsmanship and science, is linked with an invisible thread to the glassy lattice that forms the sculptor's human figures.
The fascination of the human body
In Vitro Humanitas pays homage to the foresight of the prince of Sansevero, who also set up a Glassware to try his hand at glass coloring.
As well explained by Maria Alessandra Masucci, president of the Museum, there is a profound continuity between the works of Salerno and those of Bonaventura, obtained through a punctual study artistic and artisanal, which enhances the charm, complexity and mystery, both wonderful and disturbing, of the human body.
The reflection proposed by the curator Jean Blancheart is also truly suggestive: “Mauro Bonaventura, like a vascular surgeon, studied anatomy in order to be able to propose a coherent synthesis of our arterial system in glass”.
The lampwork glass
But the sculptures of the In Vitro Humanitas exhibition also represent a homage to the lampwork glass technique. The glass, in this case polychrome Murano glass rods, is heated and shaped by the flame that comes out of a metal torch, an instrument that has replaced the lamp over the centuries, fueled by animal fat or oil, from which the technique takes its name .
Follow Vitrum Twitter to receive updates on the release of the next content related to the lampwork technique. And don't miss In Vitro Humanitas, you have until January 16, 2023 to admire the installations!
Sources: museosansevero.it, ansa.it
Cover image: museosansevero.it
